Dynamics of a nonconserving Davydov monomer. | - CCMAR -

Journal Article

TitleDynamics of a nonconserving Davydov monomer.
Publication TypeJournal Article
AuthorsSilva, PAS, Cruzeiro, L
Year of Publication2006
JournalPhys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
Volume74
Issue2 Pt 1
Date Published2006 Aug
Pagination021920
ISSN1539-3755
KeywordsAdenosine Triphosphate, Amides, Computer Simulation, Energy Transfer, Models, Chemical, Models, Molecular, Thermodynamics
Abstract

The Davydov-Scott model describes the transfer of energy along hydrogen-bonded chains, like those that stabilize the structure of alpha helices. It is based on the hypothesis that amide I excitations are created (by the hydrolysis of ATP, for instance) and kept in the system. Recent experimental results confirm that the energy associated with amide I excitations does indeed last for tens of picoseconds in proteins and model systems. However, the Davydov-Scott model cannot describe the conversion of that energy into work, because it conserves the number of excitations. With the aim of describing conformational changes, we consider, in this paper, a nonconserving generalization of the model, which is found to describe essentially a contraction of the hydrogen bond adjacent to the site where an excitation is present. Unlike the one-site Davydov-Scott model, that contraction is time dependent because the number of excitations is not conserved. However, considering the time average of the dynamical variables, the results reported here tend to the known results of the Davydov-Scott model.

DOI10.1103/PhysRevE.74.021920
Sapientia

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17025485?dopt=Abstract

Alternate JournalPhys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
PubMed ID17025485
CCMAR Authors